FreshBooks vs Wave: one bills by the hour, the other is free
Wave has unlimited clients at zero. FreshBooks caps its cheapest plan at five and starts around $21 a month. The deciding question is whether you bill time or bill projects.
Verdict
Wave is free with unlimited clients. FreshBooks starts around $21 a month and caps Lite at five clients. The question is whether you bill by the hour, because that is what FreshBooks does better.
At a glance
| Criterion | WaveBest free option | FreshBooksBest for billing time |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $0, permanently | About $21/mo billed annually |
| Billable clients | Unlimited | 5 on Lite, 50 on Plus |
| Users included | Collaborators supported | 1, extra seats about $11/mo each |
| Time tracking | Basic | Core to the product |
| Bank transaction import | Pro plan, $19/mo | Included |
| Card payment fee | 2.9% + $0.60 | Charged separately by the processor |
| Double-entry bookkeeping | Yes | Yes |
| Full review | Read the Wave review | Read the FreshBooks review |
What the winner gets right, and where it falls short
What works
- Wave has no client cap at all, which removes the whole upgrade question
- FreshBooks turns tracked time into an invoice faster than any general accounting tool
- Both do real double-entry bookkeeping, so an accountant can work from either
What does not
- FreshBooks caps Lite at five billable clients, which a busy freelancer passes quickly
- Every FreshBooks plan is single user, with extra seats about $11 a month each
- Wave time tracking is basic, so hourly billers will find it thin
The question that decides it#
Do you bill hours?
The only question that matters here
Yes points at FreshBooks. No makes Wave free and sufficient.
If you bill tracked time, FreshBooks earns its money. Time tracking and invoicing are the same product, and the loop from logged hour to sent invoice is genuinely shorter than doing it in a general accounting tool.
If you bill projects, retainers, or fixed fees, you are paying for a feature you will not use. Wave does the invoicing part free, without limits.
The client cap#
This is the structural difference, and it is where FreshBooks pricing becomes uncomfortable.
| Wave | FreshBooks | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Unlimited clients | None |
| Entry paid | — | 5 clients, about $21/mo |
| Next tier | — | 50 clients, about $39/mo |
FreshBooks prices on how many clients you bill, not on what the software does. The features barely move between tiers.
Wave has no cap at any tier, so the question never comes up.
The seat cost nobody quotes#
Every FreshBooks plan is single user. Extra team members are about $11 a month each.
A three-person agency on Plus is not paying $39. It is paying around $61.
That number is what you should compare against Wave, and against Xero, which includes unlimited users on every tier. We work through that in Wave vs Xero.
Where the real cost sits on both#
Neither subscription is the main expense if clients pay by card.
Wave charges 2.9 percent plus $0.60 per card transaction. On $10,000 of card-paid invoices that is about $350 a month, well above any FreshBooks plan.
FreshBooks payment processing is charged separately, at comparable rates.
So the honest comparison is not $0 against $21. It is what does the whole stack cost once payments are included, and the answer on both is far more than the subscription unless you steer clients to bank transfer.
What each is genuinely better at#
Wave: no caps, no seats, no upgrade pressure, real double-entry bookkeeping at zero. The absence of a pricing model is the feature.
FreshBooks: the billing loop. Proposals, recurring invoices, and time tracking built for how a freelancer actually works rather than adapted from a ledger.
Choosing in one line#
Bill hours, small stable client list, work alone → FreshBooks. The time tracking earns the money.
Bill projects or retainers → Wave. It does the job free with no caps.
More than one person needs access → Wave, or price Xero. FreshBooks per-seat cost is the thing that makes it expensive.
Growing client count → Wave, because FreshBooks charges you for growth before that growth pays for itself.
The full picture on each is in our FreshBooks review and Wave review, and the setup order that saves rework is in how to use Wave.
Tool by tool
Wave
Best free optionUnlimited invoices and unlimited clients at zero, with real double-entry bookkeeping. No caps to grow into and nothing to upgrade for unless you want bank imports.
- Starting price
- Free, Pro $19/mo
- Best for
- Anyone billing projects or retainers, at any client count
FreshBooks
Best for billing timeTime tracking and invoicing are the same product rather than two modules, which makes the loop from tracked hour to sent invoice genuinely shorter.
- Starting price
- From about $21/mo annually
- Best for
- A freelancer billing tracked hours to a small client list
Frequently asked questions
- Is Wave better than FreshBooks?
- For most freelancers, yes on price and no on time tracking. Wave does unlimited invoicing and unlimited clients free, which FreshBooks charges for. FreshBooks is meaningfully better if you bill tracked hours, because time tracking and invoicing are the same product rather than two separate things.
- Does Wave have client limits like FreshBooks?
- No. Wave has no cap on clients or invoices at any tier, including free. That is the clearest structural difference between them, because FreshBooks prices specifically on billable client count rather than on features.
- Which is cheaper for a small agency?
- Wave, and the gap widens with people. FreshBooks bills every plan as single user and charges around $11 a month for each extra seat. A three-person agency on FreshBooks Plus is paying roughly $61 a month where Wave is free.
- Can I switch from FreshBooks to Wave?
- Yes, and it is a common move once the client cap starts costing money. Export your clients and invoice history first. Expect to rebuild recurring invoices and any time tracking setup by hand, since those do not transfer cleanly.
Written by
Nizam Uddin
Founder and pricing researcher
Nizam started Tested AI after noticing how often published software prices are simply wrong. Most articles copy a vendor's pricing page once and never look again. He checks every figure against the vendor's own page, cross-references independent trackers, and states plainly when they disagree rather than picking whichever number reads best. He does not claim to have run these tools in production, and the reviews say so at the top of every page.
- Checks every price against the vendor page
- Reports source conflicts instead of hiding them
- No vendor has paid for placement